ABSTRACT
Officer-involved shooting (OIS) investigations are directed at the determination of whether the shooter officer's decision to use deadly force was “objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances confronting the officer,” and thus was both lawful and within department policy. An adversarial relationship between the investigator and the involved officer can be created if the investigator conducts the interview of the “subject” officer more from the perspective of a suspect interrogation rather than that of a witness interview. It therefore is important that use of force investigators recognize that officers who have been involved in an OIS incident are not suspects in any wrongdoing (unless and until evidence of wrongdoing has been developed). Rather, they are law enforcement professionals who have been trained, equipped, and sent out to deal with critical incidents on society's behalf, and who have just witnessed and experienced such an incident in the line of duty.
